Sabretooth
Sabretooth (originally referred to by the show as Sabre Tooth) was a competitor in Series 5-6, and later Series 8-10 of Robot Wars. Despite boasting impressive weapons, it failed to progress beyond the first round in Series 5-8, either through poor reliability, severe damage from other opponents, or a faulty self-righting mechanism. Although the robot was never successful, Sabretooth proved to be a recurring figure, qualifying for five different series, sporting the same name and aesthetics, including Series 7, from which Sabretooth withdrew. The second teaser trailer for Series 8 centred around Sabretooth and its team, before cutting to footage from its Group Battle with Storm 2, Eruption and Terror Turtle. Gabriel Stroud appeared as a mentor in Robot Wars: Battle of the Stars, helping Olympic medallists Jonathan and Alastair Brownlee to build a robot of their own design in Jar, which finished bottom in the Head-to-Heads in Episode 1. The original robot was dome-shaped, as a result of wielding a rollcage in favour of a srimech. The robot's weapon was a wide set of shredding blades that spun at 2400 RPM. Although the blades were fairly effective, the front chain was notably exposed. The robot itself was also somewhat slow, and its weapon proved unreliable in its only televised battle. In Series 6, a new Sabretooth armed with a large spinning disc weapon was built. However, its axle for the 13 inch cutting disc weapon broke during the qualifiers, so the team was forced to remove it. The damage came as a result of bending the chassis of a flipper-wielding opponent in its qualifier battle. The old axle was wielded back together, but it would no longer hold up the power of the disc, so the team instead equipped a large tyre for extra speed and mobility, and an improved drive engine, giving Sabretooth 12-horsepower push and allowing it to reach reported incredible speeds of 70 MPH (which would have made it the fastest robot in Robot Wars if these reports are true), in contrast to its former top speed of 12mph. The robot weighed 100kg, and was powered by 2 x 750w electric motors. The added speed given by the tyre didn't help against the weaponry of Terrorhurtz, and because of its thin aluminium armour and the petrol powering the weapon was on board, Sabretooth was eliminated in the first round. An all-new Sabretooth was built for Series 7, featuring a horizontal flywheel, capable of spinning at an incredible speed of 9000RPM, powered by a 125cc engine. In its qualifier battle, it teamed up with Disc-O-Inferno and took out Hannibal with a single blow whilst its ally defeated Hassocks Hog 2. Both spinners survived despite Disc-O-Inferno accidentally damaging Sabretooth when flipped by Hassocks Hog. Sabretooth lost the judges' decision to Disc-O-Inferno, but received a discretionary place. However, the team was asked to tone down the power on their disc, and were unable to comply in time for the show, so they were forced to withdraw. Team Sabretooth, now known as Team Legion after their featherweight of the same name, returned in 2016 to compete with a brand-new version of Sabretooth. The robot has three weapons, including an overhead claw at the front, which also doubles as the robot's srimech. The claw has a steep flipper underneath it, and a 22kg aluminium spinning drum at the back, spinning at 4500RPM, which emits an ominious scream at top speed. Robot History Robot Wars Series 5 In the heats of Series 5, Sabretooth fought fellow newcomer Evolution in Round 1. At the start of the battle, Sabretooth moved forward and used its spinning blades to inflict cosmetic damage to Evolution, but in return, received a blow from Evolution's turret weapon. Evolution then rammed Sabre Tooth and stopped its weapon completely. Suddenly, both robots lost a lot of their momentum. The House Robots, Sergeant Bash and Sir Killalot, both closed in to attack Evolution, fiercely penetrating the armour and snapping the turret weapon, while Sabretooth was curiously left alone. Both House Robots received yellow cards from Refbot. Sabretooth came back to life and rammed Evolution, and then time ran out. Due to its more active role in the battle, Evolution had won the Judges' decision and proceeded through to Round 2, and Sabretooth was therefore eliminated. Robot Wars Series 6 Sabretooth's spinning disc broke long before the first battle, meaning the team had to replace it with a motorcycle tyre, which supposedly increased Sabretooth's top speed to 70mph. As a result, Sabretooth's spinning disc was never referenced on the show. Sabretooth faced three other veterans in the first round battle: A-Kill, Terrorhurtz and Reptirron The Second. Sabretooth played very little part in its battle, as it ran into Sergeant Bash immediately and then slammed backwards into Terrorhurtz, who landed several powerful axe blows on it. Already immobilised, Sabretooth was shoved into the side wall afterwards, with several pieces of armour buckled and broken. Sabretooth was counted out by Refbot and thrown by the floor flipper. It was eliminated along with later victim, Reptirron the Second. Robot Wars Series 8 Sabretooth's participation in the 2016 series was first officially revealed through the second teaser trailer, which shows Team Legion admiring their robot to the theme of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You, before showing clips of Sabretooth in its first round battle. In the first round, Sabretooth met Storm 2, Terror Turtle, and Eruption. However, the robot faced immediate difficulty, as its claw weapon was broken in the process of repairs. Compromising for the lack of a srimech, Sabretooth's tactics were to spin the rear drum up to full power, and make itself unapproachable to flippers, pushing its opponents aside. It bravely targeted Eruption to try and dispose of the flipper first, and landed a glancing blow, but was tossed when Eruption snuck underneath the drum, luckily landing back on its wheels. Sabretooth was not discouraged, and buffeted Eruption, but when it was flipped once more, it landed on its back. With Sabretooth unable to self-right due to its broken claw, it was rendered immobile, and was left alone until cease was called. Sabretooth was nearly required to fight a second battle in the episode, when Team Eruption were struggling to repair their robot in time for its match against Apollo. Had Eruption dropped out, Sabretooth would have filled its place, but ultimately Eruption made it to the arena. Robot Wars Series 9 Sabretooth will compete in Episode 1, going against former Grand Finalists Aftershock, as well as Crank-E and TMHWK. Angela Scanlon immediately spoke to Team Legion about their lack of a televised win. Sabretooth was intentionally evasive at the start of the battle, allowing Aftershock to immobilise Crank-E, only challenging TMHWK when Team Dutch Robot Girls approached it. Sabretooth quickly won this battle, immobilising TMHWK with a side-on charge, ripping shards of its HDPE side panel away, eventually tearing it off completely. Wedged under TMHWK, Sabretooth drove it across the arena and into Shunt. Sabretooth sent one of TMHWK's front wedges flying, and the beaten machine was turned over by the arena spikes. Both defeated robots were counted out, but Sabretooth drew too close to Shunt, and the House Robot beached it on the arena wall. As a result, Team Legion were unaware they they had earned their first victory in Robot Wars. The jubilant Team Legion qualified for the second round, where their first opponent was Terrorhurtz, in a rematch from Series 6. Sabretooth raised its ground-scraping wedge for this battle, as it was limiting the robot's control in the previous fight. When activate sounded, Terrorhurtz charged Sabretooth, which was slow in spinning up its drum, although it scattered sparks once it started spinning, sustaining axe blows in the process. After this, Terrorhurtz drove into the arena wall, a mistake which Sabretooth capitalised on, throwing Terrorhurtz's axe rest panel aside, flipping the robot up, and burying the spinning drum into Terrorhurtz's weaker back end. Both robots met again in the centre of the arena, and Sabretooth threw Terrorhurtz skyward, then remained underneath the falling Terrorhurtz to damage its underside. However at this point, smoke poured out of Sabretooth, and the drum also stopped working after losing a huge chunk. Sabretooth needed to use tactical driving to sneak around the back of a limping Terrorhurtz, which had also lost drive to one side. Sabretooth could not push Terrorhurtz effectively, and drove in front of it to receive an axe blow. Team Legion then realised Terrorhurtz's immobility, and pressed the pit release button in the hopes that Rogue House Robot would be activated. Their wish was granted, and after an attack from the rogue Shunt, and a follow-up hit from Sabretooth, Terrorhurtz was rendered immobile, and Team Legion earned 3 points for a knockout victory. The team could not remain cheerful for too long, as they then discovered the significant damage that their drum had sustained. Robert Pickford was required to bend steel rings out of metal off-cuts to wrap around the drum, supporting the chunk that had come loose in the last battle. Sabretooth's drum was fixed in time for its second encounter with Aftershock. Sabretooth made a driving error in the face of Aftershock, exposing its wheel and losing shreds of armour, before a second error saw Sabretooth drive over the floor flipper, where it was turned over. The normally invertible robot could not move due to the damage sustained to its body-shape. Aftershock used its spinner to right Sabretooth, but caused further damage, and ripped away its top armour. Sabretooth was now in great peril, and pressed the pit release, causing the pit to descend. This gave Aftershock a chance to inflict the killer blow on Sabretooth, turning it over and showering sparks. Although Sabretooth was immobile, Team Shock did not realise this, and landed another barrage of hits, barrelling Sabretooth through the air. Sabretooth had lost the battle with a huge amount of repairs now needing to be made. Broken components included Sabretooth's motors and speed controllers, and its drum was still in need of repairs before the battle had even begun. Team Shock would later apologise for the extensive damage they caused. After hours of hard work, Sabretooth entered the test arena to see whether or not the robot would be functional for a battle with the reinstated Jellyfish. Although the team accidentally wired their drum to spin in the wrong direction, Sabretooth was fit to enter the arena. Although Sabretooth got its weapon up to speed, it could not damage Jellyfish, as the weapon was spinning in the wrong direction. Jellyfish hugged Sabretooth on two occasions, and Team Legion could only drive their robot over the top of Jellyfish. Sabretooth was idle in the centre of the arena, and it was gripped by the clamp of Jellyfish. Eventually breaking free, Sabretooth's drum hit the surface of Jellyfish, and became stuck on its back pole. Sir Killalot separated the two robots, but both were stuck on the surface of the slightly lowered pit, and could not escape until 'cease' was called. The battle was sent to an adjudication, and Dara Ó Briain revealed that this was in fact a split decision. However, despite one Judge voting in favour of Sabretooth, the battle was ultimately won by Jellyfish. This left Sabretooth with a total of three points at the end of Round 2, tied with Terrorhurtz. Because Sabretooth defeated Terrorhurtz in their head-to-head battle, Team Legion qualified for the Heat Final. Sabretooth attempted to hit Aftershock before the vertical spinner got up to speed, but this attack was not fast enough, and Sabretooth was punted towards Sir Killalot. The House Robot held Sabretooth over the flame pit, and Aftershock attacked it while it was in the air. Sabretooth's one functional wheel could not gain purchase on the arena floor, and after being thrown by Sir Killalot, Sabretooth stopped completely. Will Thomas did not power down Aftershock's weapon, but held off to see if Sabretooth was immobile. Sabretooth showed signs of life, but Gabriel Stroud seemingly wished to play dead to avoid further punishment. After another hit, Sabretooth was finished, and it was counted out. An emotional episode had come to a close for Team Legion, and the sixteen-year wait resulted in a Heat Final finish. Sabretooth currently remains in contention for a wildcard position in the Grand Final. Results Wins/Losses *Wins: 5 *Losses: 10 (+1 from qualifiers) Category:Competitors Category:UK Robot Wars Competitors Category:Heavyweight Robots Category:British Robots Category:Robots with Vertical Crushers Category:Robots with Drums Category:Robots with more losses than wins Category:Robots with Cutting Discs Category:Animal Based Robots Category:Robots that Won in Qualifiers Category:Robots that lost in Qualifiers Category:Robot Wars Series 5 Robots Category:Robot Wars Series 6 Robots Category:Robot Wars 2016 competitors Category:Robots from Surrey Category:Robot Wars 2017 competitors Category:Invertible Robots Category:Robot Wars Heat Finalists Category:UK Heat Finalists Category:Crowd favorites Category:Robots that drew Category:Robots that have forfeited Category:Robot Wars Series 10 Robots Category:Third Place winners Category:Robot Wars Rumble Competitors Category:World Championship competitors Category:World Champions